Fresh, Healthy Cranberry Relish in 30 Minutes

Fresh cranberry relish or sauce is a vast improvement over canned – but too often, cooking the main holiday dishes makes the fresh cranberry relish a low priority. AICR has an easy, healthy solution in our recipe for Cranberry Chutney

By themselves, cranberries contain plenty of polyphenol phytochemicals. Our cranberry chutney improves on plain, canned cranberry sauce by adding less sugar and more cancer-preventive ingredients: apple, onion and orange, as well as dried currants. The melange of cinnamon, cumin, cloves and bay leaf all create a holiday fragrance and taste, along with adding even more cancer-fighting phytochemicals.

This excellent chutney also makes a wonderful, inexpensive healthy gift! Tie ribbons around the jars and include a print-out of this recipe.

Cranberry Chutney

Reprinted from The New American Plate Cookbook, © 2005 AICR

• 1/2 cup white grape juice
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar, or to taste
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 medium sweet apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium navel orange, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 bag (12 oz.) fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1/2 cup dried currants

In Dutch oven or large, heavy pan, combine grape juice, sugar, cinnamon cumin, cloves and bay leaf. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Add apple, onion, orange, cranberries and currants. Return to boil; reduce heat and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes, until cranberries are soft. Remove bay leaf. Spoon chutney into sterilized glass jars. Cover immediately with 2-part canning tops, cool and refrigerate. Or store in plastic container in refrigerator and use within 1-2 weeks.

Makes 32 servings.

Per serving: 32 calories, <1 g fat, (0 g saturated fat), 8 g carbohydrates, <1 g protein, <1 g dietary fiber, 2 mg sodium